People who read this blog often (thank you) will know that I am a member of many online communities. I do that because it is a good place to see what people are writing about SNS, Social Media, and Social Media Marketing (SMM). It is also a good place to see what the old school people are doing to try to make themselves look as if they are up on the Internet and the new media.
It is pretty easy to pick the people out who are still stuck in the old ways at these "Marketing Online Professionals" communities. They write things like,
For this reason , I am convinced that SM works ONLY when being integrated inside a marketing plan, together with media placement, PR, promo, direct marketing and CRM.
It is painfully obvious that the guy who wrote this is an old-school advertising guy posing as an "Internet and Social Media" expert. He laments the fact that his Social Media Marketing (SMM) plans fail consistently. He is trying to convince us - but more likely he is trying to convince himself - that the old way is vital.
In some ways he's right. The old media is vital if my product is targeted to to the 45 ~ 70-year-old crowd or if my product or service is for everyone in the family from the smallest kids to grandpa and grandma (think Disneyland, etc.) But when your product /service is for the under 40 crowd, I think you'd have to consider long and hard about spending a cent on old media... In many cases you would not be doing your client any favors to recommend spending huge budgets on TV or radio. I wrote about that in detail here and here.
Earlier today, I went to a different online professionals community and was so surprised to find people saying things like "First things, first! You must hire a professional to do your company logo!"
Of course a good logo is a must... But coughing up a few thousand dollars to hire a professional? And this advice coming from a community that calls itself, "Online Professionals"? Hmmm... Why would the people who are supposedly sold on online business be pushing the old-school ways?
Perhaps hiring a big-bucks professional will be necessary down the line, but I think us Internet types should try to use our creativity and brains before we just throw money at the problem like people used to do....
As I suspected many times, these online communities are often places where old-school advertising agents try to gain credibility as "Internet" and "online experts"... But they actually don't really do either (always ask any self-proclaimed "Internet" and "Social Media Marketer" for a list of their blog URL's and Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, U-Stream, Mixi (in Japan), etc, accounts. That's an easy way to pick out the frauds).
Click here and read at bottom for tips on how to pick out the poseurs.
I know many a small to medium business owner who has hired a professional and spent a few thousand dollars only to wind up with a handful of designs and they didn't like any of them. Foolish especially considering the fact that new businesses must watch out for every single penny and paper clip!
Well, now my friends, there is a solution! It is a company called Logomyway.
Logomyway is a new service that started in April 2009. At Logomyway you make a logo design contest and get 1,000's of artists to compete for your business... You pay nothing excepting to the winning submission. The cost can be as low as $200 (USD). You decide the winner's prize fee.
My company, "Universal Vision" logo... $200! Excellent!
Hiring a professional designer right off the bat is old school. It is also the easy way to do things for salaried employees who have no problem spending the company money... They wouldn't recommend this is it were out of their pocket. The people people who were so quick to recommend throwing away $1,000 ~ $2,000 were from an online professionals group! I'm surprised that anyone would suggest the old way without investigating the new and exciting things going on online. Try Logomyway.
http://www.logomyway.com/
I have no investment nor business relationship with Logomyway whatsoever but have used it twice and recommended to three other people who have used it. Everyone has been more than thrilled with the results... One friend was so happy because the professional that he had hired before - and paid well - gave him designs that weren't that good... He was worried that he was going to be out another $1,000 when I introduced him to Logomyway... The result? He spent $200 and got a killer logo.
And, if you don't like any of the logos... You don't pay!
All hail the Internet!!!!
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Keywords:
Logo, Logomyway, SNS, Social Media, SMM, old media, Japan, Mixi, Internet, Facebook, Twitter, blog, online professionals, Marketing Online Professionals, YouTube, Online Marketing, Universal Vision, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, U-Stream, Mike in Tokyo Rogers,
4 comments:
So let's just clarify the business model here that you think is great:
Have over 1,000 designers create a logo for your business. Pick one that you like, and pay them what you think the logo is worth.
This is great for your pocketbook, but not for any of the 999 designers that you decided weren't worth the time of day.
Now let's be honest. In a logo mill, about 85% of what you are going to look at is probably not going to be worth anything. Some of the designers in that group and shamelessly copying work from other places. Some of them are only spending 5-10 minutes of thought on the concept, as they have to work on sheer volume to make a decent living in this model (if you are competing with 1000 people on each project, and only one is selected, you better be a tireless workhorse to make it work for you). Some of them are trying to sell the same stock design they created, over and over, as long as it loosely fits the intended brand design - again without really considering your brand.
Even taking that into account, there's around 15% of designers who did take the extra time to consider you brand and deliver a well-executed design to meet your needs. Only one will be selected. So for any of the other designers, any time or effort they put in meeting your brief is completely for naught.
This is working for spec, with very little hope of recompensation. Big agencies can afford to do this to try and land a multi-million dollar client, but the freelance designer can not.
Anonymous! It pains me to read such nonsense. YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. 1000% WRONG! If those artists don't want to participate, no one forces them to do so. If they don't like it, then they don't participate. It's very simple. Really. No one forces these artists to join!
If their art is chosen, it is money and a feather in their cap - especially if the company becomes famous....
This sort of socialist nonsense is past tense. Bullshit, really! "Big agencies can afford to do this to try and land a multi-million dollar client, but the freelance designer can not." It is obvious to me, as a long time freelancer, that you haven't a clue as to what you are talking about. Freelancers are hungry and take the jobs where they can get them.
I know; I was freelance for years. You, obviously, are not. We go freelance to escape from the binds of big corporate control. It's 2013; get into the eighties, will ya?
"and pay them what you think the logo is worth." No. Wrong. Did you even read the article? It says clearly what the prize money is. No one is forced to participate.
"Even taking that into account, there's around 15% of designers who did take the extra time to consider you brand and deliver a well-executed design to meet your needs. Only one will be selected. So for any of the other designers, any time or effort they put in meeting your brief is completely for naught."....
Ha! They bid for the job and they lost. It's called, "The Free Market!"
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